Russia’s lower-lower parliament has unanimously passed a law to ban propaganda that promotes pedophilia and “woke” gender ideology.
On Thursday, over 300 representatives of the State Duma, including the chairman, authored the new law that would ban the distribution of materials promoting pedophilia, sex-change surgeries and transgender treatments, and “gender identity.”
The law imposes heavy fines of up to 10 million rubles ($165,000) for violating the ban by promoting such propaganda using online channels, media, or in public.
Stateless persons and foreign citizens who violate the law would also face expulsion from the Russian Federation.
Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the law would help protect the motherland’s traditions and values for her children and the future of Russia.
He described the “woke” ideology and indoctrination of children as a “darkness spread by the United States and European states.”
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken allegedly called on Russian representatives to withdraw the draft law.
Volodin responded to Blinken by calling the U.S. the “center of this sodom in the world.”
“There is no need to impose alien values on us,” Volodin said.
“You destroyed yours — we’ll see how it all ends.
“But it’s definitely sad because this is sodom — there’s no other way to say it,” Volodin added.
“Let them live there, but don’t bother us.”
Russian lawmakers have already banned propaganda promoting homosexuality among minors nearly a decade ago.
The nation also passed amendments to its constitution outlawing same-sex marriage in 2020.
Alexander Khinstein, one of the bill’s authors, referred to LGBT ideology as “hybrid warfare.”
“LGBT today is an element of hybrid warfare, and in this hybrid warfare,” Khinstein said, according to Reuters.
“We must protect our values, our society, and our children.”
Political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann said in an interview from Cologne, Germany, that the law would prohibit anything showing LGBT relations as “socially acceptable” or “equal to so-called traditional family relations or sexual relations.”
“People — authors, publishers, just people — will think twice before even mentioning anything related to LGBT,” Schulmann said, according to Reuters.
Kseniya Mikhailova, a member of the LGBT support group Vykhod (“Coming Out”), told Reuters that the new law could make same-sex kissing in public illegal, but would not put adults-only gay bars or clubs out of business.
Dilya Gafurova, the head of LGBTQ rights group Sfera, told Agence France-Presse that it was “disturbing that the state is saying LGBT+ people are a Western invention,” adding “there is nothing wrong with us and nothing that needs to be hushed up.”
The law still needs approval from the upper house of parliament and President Vladimir Putin before taking effect.
However, the bill is widely supported and expected to pass.
